Ngmoco’s Ben Cousins Believes “A Free-to-Play Equivalent of Skyrim” Will Arrive in the Next Couple of Years

March 28, 2012 Written by Alex Osborn

Ben Cousins of Ngmoco is at it again. A couple of weeks ago, he announced his belief that mobile gaming would kill off consoles, and now he is reporting that a free-to-play Skyrim type game will launch within the next few years.

Speaking at the F2P Conference keynote, Cousins pointed out the elements of Skyrim that lend itself to a free-to-play model, including its robust roleplaying elements as well as its expansive world that will eat up endless hours of gamers’ time.

I am totally 100% confident – I will bet large amounts of money – that we will have, in the next few years, a free-to-play equivalent of Skyrim.

A game like Skyrim, where you accrue skills and equipment over time, that you can play for hundreds of hours, is actually one of the easiest games to develop for a free-to-play model. That would be a big hit.

While it certainly would lend itself to this type of pricing scheme, I don’t think the Skyrim team at Bethesda would agree with Cousins’ claim that it is “one of the easiest games to develop for.”